Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival near Inverness introduces parking charge to ease congestion

Organisers of Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival are to introduce a car parking charge at next year’s event to ease congestion after traffic chaos this year.

On opening day at this year’s festival in July, some festival-goers and acts were forced to queue for hours to get into the site.

It meant that some attendees, who said they had been stuck in traffic for upwards of five hours, missed sets that they wanted to see and some artists almost missed their time slots.

The new parking passes being introduced in 2024 are to cost £12 per vehicle and organisers said profits from the sale would be used to benefit local communities.

Belladrum sold a record 25,000 tickets to the 2023 event, but insisted it was a “very small percentage” increase from last year, and said it would update its strategy to prevent this from happening in 2024.

In an announcement on Tuesday, organisers said: “Those caught up in the traffic on the Thursday this year will hopefully be pleased to hear that we are re-introducing car park passes, which must be booked in advance.

“This will encourage more car sharing, manage the car park capacities and speed up entry to the festival. You will have the opportunity to select the car park most convenient for where you want to camp.

“A window sticker will be sent to your home address in advance to ensure you are directed to the correct car park.

“Vehicle passes will cost £12 per vehicle. The profit from the sale of these passes will be used to benefit the local communities.”